It's not the major cities, for the most part, who are doing the canceling. In Washington, for example, fireworks are still set to go off above the National Mall on Wednesday night. Denver is going ahead with its professional displays.

But many suburbs and smaller communities are going without pyrotechnics this year. What if your town is among them? Well, there's always PBS-TV's annual broadcast of A Capitol Fourth — the show from the National Mall. It starts at 8 p.m. ET.